That is, tracking what happens when visitors arrive at and engage with your blog content. It really comes down to the purpose of your blog. Metrics for a blog that’s focused on making a web site more search engine friendly by adding crawlable content and attracting links is quite different than a blog that’s meant to build thought leadership or brand credibility.

Many of the metrics tools used for blogs are also used for basic web site analytics. That makes sense because many blog initiatives do not have the same kind of budget as web site marketing programs do. Therefore, the analytics employed tend to be low(er) or no cost.

Regardless of the purpose, I’ve assembled a list below of the various tools we use, or have tested to report onsite blog metrics. Pick the service or tool you like the most from the list below or something new for your unique purpose and please share in the comments. The list is in no particular order.

• 103bees – Free web stats (ad supported) up to 100k visits per month, then it’s $9
• Enquisite – Free, extremely detailed web stats
• Hittail – Provides suggested topics for your blog by keywords used in referral traffic
• Crazy Egg – Provides overlay, list and heat map web stats
• RobotReplay – Lets you record visitor actions on your site and play them back
• Clicky – Web stats plus feed and Feedburner stats
• Google Analytics – Web stats, not really the best for blogs but it’s free
• StatCounter – Free web stats
• Co.mments – Track comment threads starting on your blog and follow them elsewhere in a feed
• Blog Tracker – Free from IceRocket but limited functionality
• Performancing Metrics – Basic is Free, or $3.99 to $16.99 per month for more features
• Site Meter – Basic Free and Premium versions $6.95 and up
• Mint – Popular web stats with bloggers for $30 per site
• MyBlogLog – Basic blog visitor stats and social networking. Free and paid versions.
• Feedburner Stats – StandardStats Free, TotalStats $4.99/mo
• WordPress Stats – Free basic blog stats plugin for WordPress blogs
• Google Analytics and Feedburner Stats – Free plugin for WordPress blogs
• eXTReMe Tracking – Free web stats with a paid version for $4.50 per month
• Web Stat – Many web stats features for $5/mo
• TraceWatch – Free but you need access to your server which should be running PHP/MySQL

What are your favorite analytics tools for blogs?

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Google Analytics

Google shook up the search analytics scene with the release of Urchin-powered Google Analytics. Google bought measurement powerhouse in 2005 and eventually integrated its tons of information into its Analytics product, the second incarnation of which was released early in 2007.

The good news, all that information is free.

The service allows webmasters to:

• See pie charts and maps that show who is sending traffic and what part of the world (on a city level) visitors are coming from.
• See several different reporting categories: Executive; Marketer; Webmaster; Marketing Optimization; Content Optimization.
• Integrate the information with AdWords that allows ROI reporting
• See visitor trending 

Some reports say the breadth of information available through Google Analytics can be overwhelming, so there may be a bit of a learning curve for full benefits.

Kaushik.net has a comprehensive (exhaustive) review.

Compete Search Analytics

Metrics firm Compete grabbed some buzz this fall with the release of Compete Search Analytics, of which there are both free and pay versions. The company boasts:

•     Keyword discovery for expanding your keyword bidding
•     The ability to find gaps in competitors’ strategies
•     Discovery of keywords that drive visitor engagement
•     Performance tracking and competitor comparison

Mint

Mint is a relative inexpensive tracking tool ($30 per site) that tracks browser type, country of origin, internal searches, outbound clicks, specific page tracking, and page trending.

It has been mentioned that Mint is fairly basic to the point that free tools would offer the same, but where it becomes worth its salt is via "Peppers," or free plug-ins created by enthusiastic developers.

SEO for Firefox

Developed by Aaron Wall, this Firefox browser plug-in allows you to see various stats about a website in the toolbar and beneath that site’s search result.  It tells you:

•     PageRank
•     Estimate of inbound links via Yahoo and MSN
•     Number of .edu and .gov links to the site and pages within
•     Number of del.icio.us bookmarks for a page
•     Estimated Technorati links
•     Alexa ranking
•     How many pages are in Google’s cache
•     How many page are indexed in DMOZ
•     How many Bloglines links
•     Whether a site is indexed in Yahoo
•     Whois lookup
•     Age of a domain
•     Google search volume trends
•     Popular keywords
•     Top keyword bid prices on Overture
•     Bid estimates and click volume estimates on Google

SEODigger

Another free tool available, SEODigger shows:

• Which keywords your site ranks high enough for to be in Google top 20
• Analysis of user sites and competition sites,
• How well sites are optimized for search
• Information on entire domain as well as pages

According to Aaron Wall, the Author of SEOBook, there are many useful software programs for tracking SEO results that are either free or relatively inexpensive.

These include:

* Google Analytics

* Mint Site Tracking Software

* Digital Point Forums

* SEO for Firefox

* Compete.com

* SEO Digger

Before accepting every free offer that comes your way, you need to research the software first. Each software program should contain a means with which track analytics, page rankings, your back links as well as your competition’s, the number of indexed pages, keyword density within pages, and all historical data.

Email scams are another matter that need to be carefully examined. These scams make unobtainable promises and then take your money and run! Aaron Wall describes this type of marketing as “the marketer is never above the medium.”

He explains that these spammers cannot comprehend what true marketing is if they think they have to use email spam to sell their product or service.

For more information, tune into the WebProNews video “Advice from Aaron Wall on SEO Tracking Software” and see which tracking programs he recommends.

 Damn, I love my Canon 5D camera (thank you Maryam!). Imagine how good my images will be after I learn how to use it. Thomas Hawk or Scott Beale don’t need to worry about losing their status as best Web 2.0 photographers anytime soon. Hah.

I got a demo of Mint and it lives up to the hype someone gave it in my comment section this morning. Nice way to look at and manage your personal finances. Cubic Telecom did live up to the hype, too. I gotta get some of those phones for Maryam’s family in Iran. She pays so much for her mom to call back home.

There’s plenty of chatter over on TechMeme — I’m not going to try to live blog conferences anymore, it’s a thankless task and one that’s best left to people who actually like sitting in the halls. Me? I’m a hallway rat. CenterNetworks’ Allen Stern has a good wrapup and links to a few of the best posts..

Oh, anyone want to be on the ScobleShow? I’ll be hanging out in Half Moon Bay and have a few extra hours this week to do some interviews. Family is here, so it’s good to get out of the house.

Finally, in that picture above is Renee Blodget, holding the camera. If you can identify all the other people in the picture you’ll be ready for some hallway networking at tech conferences in the future. Hint: a famous journalist/blogger, a wife of one of TechCrunch 40’s co-founders, and a famous lawblogger is there.

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BuzzLogic Ready To Mint Influence Currency

It may be enough for a one-person shop to subscribe to alerts from Google Blogsearch, Technorati, and BlogPulse to track their mentions online. On an enterprise level, the task of keeping up with higher levels of chatter becomes far greater than what one-person can do part time.

Those conversations hold too much importance, both financially and intangibly, to treat as watercooler talk to be ignored. Disdaining the online discussions allows them to build steam.

Some conversations, and the bloggers who influence them, merit greater attention than most. BuzzLogic has a way to tell who the influencers are, and just how far they reach.

Parsons called this influence the real currency in social media. Responding to this from a business perspective means finding the people whose opinions carry the most sway, and targeting them for feedback.

I’m going to caution bloggers here that for a starting point of $12,000, a BuzzLogic client who falls under a blog’s niche of coverage will be subject to a careful and relentless algorithmic scrutinizer. You may or may not be bothered by this; comments, naturally, are welcome below the article.

As Parsons showed in a demonstration of BuzzLogic, the product looks for trust relationships. Spam blogs don’t enter the equations when calculating the Conversation Index, a way of seeing who’s talking and who’s listening.

Parsons said the product derives influence from what BuzzLogic finds across both blogs and the mainstream media. BuzzLogic can show who influences the conversation, and when they began to influence it.

The audience falls into the measurements as well. BuzzLogic tries to determine the quality of the audience by looking at the basic popularity of the site, then at the relevance of linkers to it and how often they link to it.

All of this information displays on a map inside the BuzzLogic console. The map shows upstream and downstream influence as bloggers post, connect, and connect again.

BuzzLogic tracks the rise and fall of influencers over time, through a watchlist a user can create. Also, users can drill down to specific posts, and assign the tone of the post a rating from a dropdown menu..

That dashboard shows a workspace with campaign management tools, where the business can monitor conversations based around specific marketing efforts. Parsons showed a couple of CRM-like components, where marketing and PR types can create a history of their interactions with a given influencer and share those with other users on the system.

There is a lot going on in BuzzLogic, as its not only picks up people joining the conversation, but has some future planning ability too. Through its gathering of influence information, BuzzLogic can be used to build a channel ahead of time.

With this, a marketer will have an idea of who the influencers will be as far as likely commenters on a new campaign. Parsons said BuzzLogic will soon have an ad targeting piece, which will have a use for businesses to identify potential destinations for marketing efforts.

Some of BuzzLogic’s customers already use the product in this way, Parson said. Many use it just to get a better picture of the landscape of influencing voices, and engage with them in a timely fashion before something can become a PR nightmare.

We expect more businesses will look to BuzzLogic or other solutions as they seek ways to proactively manage, or at least try to manage, the independent voices online. Bloggers who see themselves rapidly targeted by public relations types after writing a post may have done more than show up in a keyword alert.

They may have made it onto BuzzLogic’s map.

Resource Shelf noted the opening of the latest feature on OpenSecrets. The 2008 Presidential Election pages have opened, showing the massive fundraising that takes place throughout the various campaigns.

“Running for president is a bit like running a medium-sized business for two years, and the overall race amounts to a decent-sized industry,” OpenSecrets said in its announcement.

People can visit the Presidential pages to see the dollar amounts raised and spent by the candidates. It’s equally interesting to see where that money goes. OpenSecrets found overall that virtually 58 percent of the cash goes right back into administrative costs, while 18 percent made it to campaign expenses.

Contributions from selected industries can be viewed in lists that show who has picked up how much. Clinton, Romney, and Obama are the big winners in Computer/Internet money, while Rudy Giuliani leads in Casinos/Gambling contributions received.

Another feature shows how candidates have fared in state by state fundraising. In the WebProNews home state of Kentucky, Obama leads Clinton, but trails her and John Edwards in Lexington. Similar data is available for each state.

Master of the ..

The problem starts with that word master. In this context, it usually means someone who looks after the well-being of some resource. Indeed it’s often applied to someone who looks after something with a cultural content. Just think Concertmaster, Master of the Queen’s Music or Master of the Royal Mint. It’s also often a word that dates back to a former time. How could it possibly have come to be used to apply to such modern innovations as websites?

It is of course a word that is often used in gaming. Perhaps that’s the explanation. Geeks are often heavily into gaming. Just think Gamemaster or Dungeon Master. Since geeks are often also the persons looking after websites, then perhaps webmaster is a very comforting descriptor. It may have been an easy word to accept in the first instant, but it can lead to all sorts of problems.

Big companies

The problems are most often seen in big companies. Websites are complex and can often run into problems, some of them being difficult to correct. Given this, many companies decide that the website is best handled within the IT group. The marketing group, with enough of its own problems, is often happy to leave this potential tar baby to another group. Since the IT group usually does not understand marketing and the marketing group does not understand the working concepts of the IT group, this is a recipe for disaster. Over the years, I have spoken to many situated either side of this divide, who are constantly frustrated by the working difficulties of this arrangement.

Marketing and Sales

The webmaster dysfunction pales into insignificance in some companies, given the dysfunction they have between the marketing and sales groups. Sometimes the two groups have somewhat independent existences. The company operates in a similar way to the way wars used to be waged. The artillery (marketing) shell the territory to be taken. Afterwards the infantry (sales) go in and secure the territory street by street. That is no longer the way wars are waged nor is it the way that marketing and sales should be cooperating. Strong team action is needed between marketing and sales to ensure the most effective sales operation.

The website should not be seen as a fine piece of art that has been created to support the marketing and selling activity. The webmaster concept might support this inappropriate view. A selling effective website is an integral part of the marketing/sales activity. Like any other part of the marketing/selling activity, there should be objectives and metrics to establish performance. Activities should be modified in the light of results. The Google Webmaster Central website can provide some useful data in this approach, but other parts of the marketing/sales group will have their own selling activities and their own metrics to add to the review process.

What’s a better job title?

To emphasize this marketing/selling role for the website, some title such as Internet Marketing Manager is much more appropriate. The exact title will depend on the size of the organization. Whatever the title, the responsibility for a selling-effective website must clearly rest within the marketing group. Some activities may be subcontracted to the IT group. But the buck stops with the marketing group.

Related: What’s in a name – Web mastery?

So, I’m chilling out a bit, taking the kids out for the day, and trying to avoid the computer. My wife thinks it’s a miracle if I can go even half a day without checking mint, comments to moderate, email, etc.

So I will be very brief…

My last post was spent talking about the relational dynamics that are so critical to successful blogging. No sooner had I done that, that I took a closer look at Liz Strauss’ site, and realized (slightly embarrassingly) that she is the doyenne of “relationship blogging” and I had not mentioned her. So I did that in an update. And then at midnight my time, she and I connected up on Skype for a great chat that went on for more than an hour.

Thanks Liz, for some wonderful encouragement and advice!

What I appreciated most about Liz what her obvious depth of insight and experience, her kindness towards me, and her high-touch approach (a Skype call). She’s not just talking relational blogging – she’s living it.

Also, a blogger who’s caught my eye is baron.vc. He’s got a very new blog but he’s jumped straight into the deep end with some great posts and the very obvious fact that he knows what he’s talking about with Digg, especially.

This post on becoming a Digg front-page regular is one I have read very carefully and thoughtfully, as it’s a challenge I am trying to rise to. Baron can talk – he’s had three stories made popular so far. Well done, mate!

And finally (I said this would be quick), I am completing my first week using Mint, the blog stats package for WordPress from Shaun Inman. Shows you how much I know I always thought it was a hosted package! But after getting annoyed with limitations and delayed data with Google Analytics, I made the switch, and I am quite pleased, but with some reservations, which I’ll talk about. Stand by for that : )

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Alister Cameron is an accomplished web designer and internet marketing
consultant who turns established subject-matter experts into expert
bloggers. Alister’s clients are using blogging and social media to leverage
their offline expertise in the online world, and engage Alister to build
their blogging platform or social network; to train them in writing and
online marketing strategy; and to help them stay up with the latest
developments in blogging and online marketing. Alister’s blog is a rich
tapestry of advice, anecdotes and reflections from the frontline of
professional blogging, social media and search engine marketing, and never
without generous dollops of humor and wit.

They sold that part of the company to PayPerPost and PayPerPost returned it. Now no one is taking care of the stats and it’s been closed.

So my first thought was, what do I replace it with? Google Analytics is great, but a bit overwhelming for most people. Mint is one of my favorite stats packages, but costs $30 and I wanted something free for now. Who doesn’t? That’s when I saw Feedburner’s StandardStats.

StandardStats will track and report on blog visitors, inbound traffic, browser usage, OS usage, outbound clicks and much more. I just installed it and I’m waiting for my stats to come poring in.

With Feedburner’s track record with feed stats, I have high hopes for StandardStats. Only time will tell though. Give me a week or two and I’ll report back with my findings. If you’ve been using StandardStats, let us know what you think.

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Thomas McMahon is a SEO Designer for TopRank Online Marketing in Minneapolis, MN. His specialities inlude technical optimization of existing web sites, creating search engine friendly web designs, and blog optimization. He has also created a number of blog marketing tools, WordPress plug-ins and FireFox add-ons.

Blog: http://bloggerdesign.com

Quite a bit of time with release candidate 2 of version 2 of ecto for Windows, the offline blog manager and editor which I’ve been testing over the past few weeks.

I’ve been giving the developers a bit of feedback in the ecto Windows beta forum. Lots of typing messages to post there. Yesterday I had a tricky concept to explain where writing it would have taken ages and would unlikely have enabled the developer to see what I was getting at. So I recorded a video using Camtasia Studio to show what I was getting at which seems to have done the trick. And another one this morning. If you’re testing ecto, you might find these helpful, too. Links in the thread on the forum.

A (moving) picture is indeed worth a thousand words.

This afternoon, I installed Mint on my server. This is a stats tool that will give me loads of useful info about who visits this blog, where they’re from, what they read, where they go, etc.

But just saying Mint is a stats tool doesn’t do it justice. That’s about the same as saying Cadbury’s is just a bar of chocolate.

Amazingly, I couldn’t find even a simple description on their website that concisely summarizes what Mint is and does (but there is an FAQ). Here’s a pretty good review that explains it all well. Mint doesn’t work on hosted blog services like TypePad or Blogger, by the way, only on a Linux server (see the requirements for details).

Google Analytics offers much of the same features as Mint, plus additional/different ones, and it’s free (you pay $30 for Mint). Yet I feel pretty good about supporting an independent developer. Plus Mint’s running directly off my own server. And there are some very neat add-ins called Peppers written by other independent developers. Quite a community out there.

Next up – install Gizmo. This is an internet phone service that I tried last year. Wasn’t too impressed then (and I’m still not convinced about it now) so I continued with Skype.

But if you’re a regular listener to the FIR podcasts, you might have noticed in the last couple of shows that the sound quality when I speak has been a bit iffy. Shel and I record each show over Skype, with me here in Europe and him over there in the USA doing the actual recording. We have no idea what’s causing the poor sound quality with Skype. Anyway, we’ve decided to try something else for Monday’s show. Likely to be Gizmo.

Time’s marching so I’d better get it installed

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Neville Hobson is the author of the popular NevilleHobson.com blog which focuses on business communication and technology.

Neville is currentlly the VP of New Marketing at Crayon. Visit Neville Hobson’s blog: NevilleHobson.com.